Izuchukwu Okosi
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Former Super Eagles left back Ifeanyi Udeze has given his backing to Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation Austin Eguavoen to continue as coach of the Nigerian national team when they play against Ghana in the 2022 FIFA World Cup playoffs.
Nigeria will face Ghana at home and away in March for a ticket to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Eguavoen was in charge of the team in their 2021 Africa Cup of Nations campaign which came to a shuddering end on Sunday evening with a 1 – 0 defeat to Tunisia in the round of 16.
Despite the exit of the three-time African champions, Udeze expressed his support for Eguavoen who won the tournament as a Super Eagles player in 1994 and led the team as coach to a third place finish in 2006 when Egypt hosted the continent.
“Eguavoen needs to refresh himself but I believe with his experience, he can do the job very well on a full time basis. Our matches against Ghana are too close for another coach to come in right now,” Udeze said on Brila FM on Thursday morning.
“He (Eguavoen) needs to attend refresher courses. I don’t have a problem with him handling the games against Ghana home and away in the World Cup playoffs. But certainly he needs to refresh his coaching ideas. That’s the thing.
“Eguavoen gets my support. Before the AFCON I felt he didn’t have enough time to work with the team but we could see his impact in the team in Cameroon.
“But I am not Amaju Pinnick the Nigeria Football Federation boss, Pinnick decides that. However this is my personal opinion,” Udeze stated on Brila FM’s breakfast show, Sports Machine.
On the subject of tactical flexibility, Udeze while responding to questions from listeners on the programme agreed that the team should be able to adapt to new team setup contrary to widespread belief that the Super Eagles only thrives on the wings.
“Our style of play is 4-4-2 formation which is creating goal scoring chances from wing play. Every country has their own style of play. But 4-4-2 doesn’t mean that we should always stick to it. It must not be on the wing, the right winger for instance can come infield and let number 2 (right back) run the channels sometimes,” Udeze posited.
Prior to the start of the AFCON, the Nigeria Football Federation confirmed that Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro will likely take charge of the team.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
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